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Reviewer:
Charlotte Gardner
Gunar Letzbor and Ars Antiqua Austria have certainly brought a distinctive new take on the concertos here, beginning with considerably slower tempos than we’re used to from period bands, and particularly pronounced dynamic contrasts. You’ll also notice a prominent organ within the continuo. Tone-wise they’ve really shaken things up too, with a rough, scratching attack their dominant modus operandi; listen to the viola’s unusually idiomatic Spring dog barks for instance, or the violins in Summer’s first movement. Then there’s their forte sound, which features a good deal of percussive twanging and slapping. The result is a sound that packs far more of a punch volume-wise than one would usually expect of such one-to-a-part forces, but I can’t say I actually enjoyed the overall ride. Equally, Letzbor himself is passionate but also often rather scrappy of attack, even accounting for the deliberately sackcloth signature sound, and while his decision to initially go chromatically downwards on those high B trills of his first Spring entry stands out for originality, it doesn’t sound very nice. Or, indeed, like happy birdsong, and ultimately this is a programmatic work. It’s very possible that all this might make for an exciting live performance, but on the stereo I’m afraid it is more grating than gratifying. |
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